Houston White Collar Crime Attorneys

Proven Counsel in State & Federal Courts

Charges and investigations of fraud and other financial crimes require
the intervention of a Houston white collar crime attorney who knows the
intricacies of the law and can deal with the myriad of complex issues
that may affect your career, your company, your personal life, and your
very freedom.

"It was unbelievably reassuring the reception Mr. Cogdell gets when entering
the court room.
I knew I was in good hands." - Former Client

Cogdell Law Firm is widely known for our success in handling white collar
crime cases. Our founder and principal attorney, Dan Cogdell, primarily
focuses on this key practice area. Over the past 36 years, he has built
a reputation as a “Texas trial legend” and has successfully
litigated some of the most complicated, high-profile white collar crime
cases in the country. This has included “not guilty” verdicts
in the Enron litigation, Branch Davidian trial, and Houston City Hall
bribery case.

White collar criminal defense cases are often lengthy and complex, touching
broadly on diverse aspects of the law. This gives the prosecutor more
strategic options and creates potential pitfalls for inexperienced defense
attorneys. Our decades of accumulated experience have helped our Houston
white collar crime lawyers hone our approach to one that is most protective
of your interests while remaining flexible enough to address even the
most clever prosecutorial strategies.

What Is at Stake?

Being properly represented in a federal white collar prosecution can mean
protecting a business, salvaging a life savings, and even avoiding decades
in prison. An indictment may be the result of years of investigative work
by multiple federal agents. The end product of the agents’ work
often includes wiretapped phones, searches of homes or businesses, volumes
of emails, and former co-workers or friends who have been converted into
cooperating witnesses.

At trial, the government will typically hire expert witnesses and sponsor
the testimony of cooperating persons who will be named as co-conspirators
to the alleged
crimes. Facts might be represented in an entirely different way than you recall
in efforts by a prosecutor highly motivated to obtain a conviction.

Beating the Government at Trial

Over the past 30 years, Dan Cogdell has built a proven and singular track
record of success in defending white collar criminal cases. He has fought
for his clients and defeated the government in some of the most important
cases in Texas and across the nation.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the national savings and loan crisis
hit Texas, spurring what was then a groundbreaking slew of prosecutions
aimed at white collar defendants. Dan went to work, representing the owner
of Continental Savings and Loan to a “not guilty” verdict
at trial. He went on to win acquittals for several other clients in subsequent
years. In one case, The Oxford Funding Trial, Dan not only obtained an
acquittal of all charges against his client based on prosecutorial misconduct,
both the lead prosecutor and the lead agent for the Government were held
in contempt. In the early 2000s, Houston was ground zero for criminal
prosecutions tied to the collapse of Enron. Dan Cogdell is the only attorney
who won his client’s acquittal on all charges at their first trial.

Cogdell has evolved into one of the best at his craft in destroying the
government’s case by simplifying complex transactions in a way that
not only does the jury truly understand what happened and whereby the
issues are resolved in the client’s favor.

Minimizing the Impact in the Worst Cases

Our Houston white collar crime lawyers start every case with a plan to
fight to the end. Depending on our careful review of the evidence and
after repeated client consultations to understand the factual contours
of a case, we will sometimes determine that it is in our client’s
best interest to resolve the case without trial. In these cases, Dan Cogdell
has subtracted years off of his clients’ sentences and saved them
millions of dollars in restitution.

Dan Cogdell negotiated a 3-year sentence for the Chief Investment Officer
of Stanford International Bank, a $7 billion Ponzi scheme that led to
a 110-year prison sentence for its leader Allen Stanford. Significantly,
Dan’s client did not have to cooperate with the government to achieve
this negotiated deal.

Dan Cogdell represented a high-ranking officer at Enron and negotiated
for him to keep tens of millions of dollars from restitution and forfeiture
by the government. As in the Stanford case, Cogdell’s client received
the lowest sentence of any of the defendants in that matter, served less
than two years, and also was not required to forfeit tens of millions
of dollars. Many of his co-defendants received sentences approaching twenty
years and forfeited all of their financial assets.

Mr. Cogdell and his firm offer you over three decades of experience in
successfully defending white collar cases. He and his team will handle
your case giving it all the attention it deserves.

To arrange for an immediate consultation and evaluation, call us at (713) 426-2244 today.

The information on this website is for general information purposes only.
Nothing on this site should be taken as legal advice for any individual
case or situation. This information is not intended to create, and receipt
or viewing does not constitute, an attorney-client relationship.